Sam Kofi Mills with Cadman Mills
Five years after the death of former President John Evans Atta Mills, his only son, Sam Kofi Mills, has said neither he nor the family knows the exact cause of the death of the late president.
“I still don’t know (the cause of his death), the hospital never gave the family any autopsy report to show that this and this was the cause of why he passed away, so, I don’t know what killed my father and I don’t think any member of my family will be able to give evidence of how President Mills passed away,” Sam Kofi Mills stated in an interview with Kafui Dey of GHOne Television Monday morning.
“I have heard several rumours and speculations (about the cause of death) but as for me, until I see any concrete evidence, I would not believe these reports,” Sam Mills added.
The late president’s son was speaking moments after a ceremony held to mark the fifth anniversary after the death of Prof Mills. The ceremony was held at the Asomdwe Park, near the Christianborg Castle at Osu in Accra.
Sam Mills also told Kafui Dey that he and some family members actually sat together and had lunch with Prof Mills on the day he died.
When Kafui Dey reminded Sam Kofi Mills that Prof Mills was reported to have died in the forenoon, the late president’s son insisted that could not be true because he and his dad sat over food at lunch time on that same day and by then his dad was certainly not a dead man.
“I had lunch with my father and my aunties on that day he died. We ate together at lunch time then I left them,” Sam Mills insisted.
He recounted what happened between the two on the morning of his death day:
“We spoke that day in the morning. I went to his room to wake him up so we go together for our normal walk from the Castle to the Independence Drive. But he told me that day he couldn’t go for the walk because he was expecting his medical doctors to attend to him first. We spoke about other things and what I was involved in and he was very supportive.”
Sam Mills is not the first family member of the late president who has expressed lack of knowledge about the exact cause of his death.
The late president’s biological brother, Dr Cadman Mills, recently said he would welcome an inquest to determine the exact cause of death and eleventh hour happenings before the sad incident occurred on July 24, 2012.
“I’m just so fed up with the speculations and suspicions…if Ghanaians will once and for all be at peace for them to have an inquest, please do it, please have an inquest so that Ghanaians can rest and be at peace.
“Unfortunately, we in Ghana, I’m not so sure that if they did an inquest there still will not be people who will question it. But at the very least, the NDC is not in power so nobody can say they falsified the results; hopefully if an inquest is done Ghanaians will finally rest at peace and I will rest, I’ll be at peace too…and hopefully President Mills will be at peace. I’m not requesting for an inquest, all I’m saying at this stage is that I have no issues with an inquest, I think it will be better that it is done,” Cadman Mills told Bola Ray on Starr Chat.
He also spoke about Prof Atta Mills’ health condition and medical attention: “I went to China and when I came back I couldn’t recognise my brother, he was not even coherent… He was very visibly sick and I’d never seen him like that before and I said we had to evacuate him immediately…we had to go to the US and that was when they started telling me that elections are going to be soon and politically it was not right….that was the first time I was very disrespectful of the presidency.
“I told them my piece of mind and I decided we had to go to the USA. What really got me furious was that they said he was going to the US for a routine medical check-up and I said what are you people talking about? My brother is a human being, he’s not well…I wanted him to take the time necessary to get well.”
By Halifax Ansah-Addo